The  first Hair Transplant was sort of by accident. A dermatologist by the name of Dr. Norman Orentreich became known as the father of hair restoration. It came about during an on going study of a disease called Vitiligo. Dr. Norman Orentreich  took circular punched grafts from one area of the scalp that had some hair in it and transferred it to the vitiligo areas. He noticed that a plug of tissue containing hair transferred to a non hair bearing skin had continued to grow hair. In 1952 a patient was adamant that he try to fix his hair loss, so Dr. Norman Orentreich  tried his first hair restoration based on his Vitilgo studies. Dr. Norman Orentreich was deemed the father of hair restoration.
After these discoveries, the field exploded as Dr. Norman Orentreich spread his knowledge of hair restoration all over the world in lectures. Fast forwarding to today the industry is very large and continuing to expand as newer technologies such as follicular unit extraction or FUE has developed.
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Thomas Ortiz
Surgical Technician
gulfcoasthairrestoration.com
Hairtech
Reference: Hair Transplantation 4th ed Unger and Shapiro